The defender has pinpointed Hull's next league clash against Sunderland as crucial to their survival hopes.

As the Premier League returns after another international break, Hull City stalwart Curtis Davies has set his sights on helping the Tigers lift themselves out of the relegation zone.

"We have to take momentum and confidence"

The defender admitted that Hull had not made the most of the last few games that saw them drop points in games they would hope to do better in. He explained "we know we let ourselves down during the run of games after the last break up to the Southampton fixture. We had games that we knew we could be competitive in, but we weren’t".

However Davies was full of praise for how his team responded in that most recent fixture and hopes they can use it as a stepping stone in another important group of upcoming fixtures. He commented "fair play to the team for the way we came back after going behind against Southampton and we probably deserved the win on that day. We have to take the momentum and confidence from that win forward with us now in a big period in the season".

"We want to be the ones who kick on"

Davies believes that Hull need to maintain their momentum in a crucial relegation six-pointer on Saturday. He suggested “we want to be the ones who kick on and push ourselves on in the table, and if that also means putting more distance between ourselves and Sunderland that can only be a good thing as the season progresses".

However he is wary that David Moyes' side will have the same ambition, stating “Sunderland had a great win against Bournemouth before the break. They’ll probably see the game on Saturday as a chance to get kick-started, but we don’t want to be their catalyst for that".

A victory for Hull could see them climb out of the relegation zone this weekend.